The American Insurgency Amassing in Texas and Typically Cynical European Disregard

Posted by Matthew Crouch at 12:11

Here at the Experiencing Belgium desk from where I wearily keep my eye on the few pieces of this crazy planet I know I’ve been observing how much Camp Casey and Cindy Sheehan’s stand against the perpetually vacationing Junior Bush regime has been in the news. Thanks to my Google news alert service I can follow this unique piece of American history as it is reported back home. The odd thing is none of this has made it onto the European news networks I follow. If it has then I have somehow by only the odd chance missed it but really if it has been in the news then it hasn’t been very much or I would have seen or heard it. Meanwhile true to its global agenda the BBC world service radio has been on non-stop full reports about the Gaza “pull-out” shamelessly covering the story with blatant non-Palestinian sympathies – I want to hear about the Palestinians side of these stories we are hearing daily. It's time we hear the Palestinian stories that aren’t making it into the media. Lets face it those settlers have a pretty sweet deal and perhaps if they hadn’t taken all those literal and figurative pot shots at pedestrians in Gaza with their guns then most likely they would have been welcome to stay and be a part of the neighborhood. As it seems they were bad neighbors but we never hear about that side of the story at least from the Beeb. I mean I am in Belgium and I’m not a Belgian but then I didn’t kick out some previous generation of Belgians from their family homes to make room for myself. But the sport shooting from the settlements in Gaza is the kind of story you won’t hear served up on the Beeb. Yeah well perhaps this isn’t headline news but perhaps it should be – it is after all another one of the state of Israel’s growing list of dirty little secrets.

This transmission, however, is not about the suffering of Palestine, we are gathered here today to examine why Cindy Sheehan is not in the news in Belgium or in general anywhere for that matter in Europe… Neither is it news yet at the BBC, so far as I can tell the Beeb hasn’t been covering Camp Casey. The new little woman who started that great big war of resistance – like a modern day Harriet Beecher Stowe – and there is no insinuation here that junior Bush is akin to Lincoln by way of referencing what that real Republican Lincoln had to say about Ms. Stowe way back when. I mean Bush and his henchman are a very different kind of Republican than Lincoln -Republican’s in name only for these new Republicans go to war for oil rights and enslave good American people at Wal-Mart where the less fortunate eat, shop and work in one vicious circle of modern day capitalistic slavery tread mill without benefits.

The reason Cindy Sheehan and Camp Casey are not news in Europe at least at this point is either because the sophisticated and highly educated journalists over here are just clueless or this whole idea that there are actually a handful of American’s who oppose the Bush regime and their egotistical and unjustified war are not conforming to European ideas of what the average American is all about. It is easier to demonize a nation by thinking that the few hundred million Americans are all the same and are of one mind and all totally in favor of the Bushies pet war. Perhaps Camp Casey will make it in the news here when there are enough Americans there to constitute protesting the Bush administration in quantifiable masses of angry stone throwing Americans. Perhaps something by way of sheer human numbers in attendance will get the attention the next time Mr. and Mrs. Bush junior drive by obliviously half asleep while drinking cocktails from the back of a limousine en route back and forth to their fake dude ranch vacation. It’s looking like another episode of the Muppet show from Crawford country again. I can hear that Muppet show jingle already in the back of my head but what are those two cranky men in the balcony saying about all this I wonder? Well you can be damned sure they aren’t saying anything nice about the first family and their wicked and heartless administration. I mean my God the Muppet show wasn’t even as choreographed as this vacationing president!

Perhaps some Belgian journalists stationed in the states will get out of their stupor of American capitalism and park their friggin SUV’s and start doing some real journalistic work with decent middle Americans taking a stand. Perhaps if the one or two Belgian journalists in the states turn off their air conditioning and their TV which is most certainly turned into to the likes of the deplorable Fox network then maybe they can resume their critical analysis of life in the US. Maybe some European journalists will venture down with some camping gear to Crawford, fucking hot as hell this time of year, Texas and do some real work in the trenches of the American uprising against the tyrannical Bush regime. Obviously the Europeans got suckered in hook, line and sinker by the game of privilege and class entitlement that the Bush Administration uses to play with journalists. Anyway just think if you’re a European journalist on a long term assignment in say Washington you have a pretty sweet deal – why go risking a comfortable job in a comfortable place? Why stop hob knobbing with foreign diplomats at champagne dinners – I mean why risk all that to be a good journalist following one’s heart and conscience? Why risk your career by getting your hands dirty in the Texan dust, sweat and heat by camping out with the pilgrims there for that will in this day and age get you on the Bushies black list. You won’t get invited to the ball Cinderella for befriending the likes of a Mother who lost her sons or daughters to the Bushies death machine in Iraq. I say fuck that! If it is a journalists priority to stay on good terms with the Bush administration they might as well just get a job at fucking Fox. European journalists were once extraordinary and credible journalists who wouldn’t get suckered into the diplomats games of enticement and petty privilege. Journalists should be the cool rogue whistle blowers with truth from observation not off playing with people who subscribe in this day and age to petite bourgeois nineteenth century colonialist ideals such as diplomatic immunity. Will the bright journalistic minds from Europe stationed in the states please get off the golden golf course of luxury and get back to work with the real Americans? There is a rebellious left leaning side of American insurgents in the states not being reported on over here from the other side of the North Atlantic.

 

Mr. and Mrs. BBC and Other Metaphors of the Britisher Abroad

Posted by Matthew Crouch at 17:33

After becoming rather pissed off at the poor selection of TV programming on offer with the miserable Brussels city cable services I decided to take my television programming into my own hands. I only subscribe to cable here so I can watch TV Brussel the only worthwhile and completely compelling station (even if it is mostly in the Dutch language) in the whole of Bru-town! Last night I inserted a DVD into all that baffling technology that is accumulating under the so New York SONY TV that is precariously perched atop another cheap bit of home furnishings from icky Ikea. Maybe it’s all those wires, and dust monsters, old video cassettes behind cobwebs and broken VCRs packed under more recent components along side the clutter of DVD and CD jewel cases – there in all that chaos I inserted Berlin: Symphony of a Great City on disc. This silent documentary featuring daily life and machinations of 192o’s Berlin shocked me by how modern and civilized the past once was. Here is a delightful peek into a world that has since all but vanished; a city and society so ahead of its time that we here in today’s world despite all the sophisticated new compact technology still looks like we are socially devolving since the heavy machinations of 1920’s post WWI Berlin. Watching this all but forgotten silent film is like having a ticket to ride a time machine from the safety and comfort of home to see how futuristic the past was. I learned one valuable lesson from this film about today’s commuter trains – just by observing how things worked in the past we can see why our trains of today can’t seem to run effectively which might actually just be simply the result of the doors on the train being so few and far between. In the trains of the early twentieth-century there were rows of doors one after the other adjacent to each other. Compare that to say the TGV/Thallys where there is a door about every half football field’s length. Perhaps in this simple bit of design is the answer to today’s inefficient rail services. Maybe a few decades back some bright mind thought “well if we eliminate all those doors and hinges and latches we can save money to buy a few automatic doors” thus enabling the passengers to hoard up as uncivilized creatures at the doors just so that one or two people at a time can squeeze through to exit and enter. Perhaps therein is the source of all the delays and dysfunctions which leads to extra cost and more excuse to eliminate public transportation.

Aside from these observations on great urban histories I’m afraid I have to lead this essay once again down that forgotten and all but grown over prickly path of liberty, freedom of speech, press (self publishing) and thought once again. I mean someone has to think and speak since everyone else is droning along watching Big Brother Bush take more freedom and power due to public fear of terrorism while our protecting governments export and extort freedom and democracy to other far away places. Perhaps if we relinquish all our civil liberties to Bush and Blair and Co then perhaps places like Iran and Iraq will be the freest places on earth. Why our governments are more concerned with places where they have no voting populace to serve I don’t know… (well, we do know actually, money and power lay in the Middle East at the moment!)

Today’s exercise in freedoms of thought, speech and press will be in the thrill of attacking the completely unbiased and thoroughly all seeing and knowing entity that is simultaneously everywhere and nowhere at the same time: The entity that rings inside all of our heads even if we don’t want it to – The British Broadcasting Corporation. Two voices stand out to me as best representing the true face of this mythological proportioned media goddess. Sadly though it is not a kind hearted, intelligent or talented Redgrave….

Whenever I heard the shrill voice of Elizabeth Blunt or the lets put on airs with our evening dinner jacket while reading the news in that sham Priest of a voice… What is this reader of the evening news on the BBC’s World Service name? Roy London or Rob Maude and does it matter? You know the one – that affected condescending accent that is the British voice of propaganda. That Elizabeth Blunt voice sounding much like the fairy Godmother’s voice from the Wizard of Oz all high pitched with a slight quiver dripping with shameless snobbery – except in this stretched analogy - I daresay calling this Elizabeth a fairy Godmother is a bit disgraceful to the fairy Godmother from MGM Wizard of Oz. As soon as I hear either of those two that’s about when I reach for the radio knob and turn to Studio Brussel (Flemish/Vlaams radio for Brussels city) as fast as possible. What is it about these two BBC staffers whose presence in my home bothers me to my core? Why does the Elizabeth Blunt voice sound like it were being radioed across time from the like of somewhere between the end of silent film and 1930’s cinema? That voice of condescension that rings through every syllable she enunciates from wherever on the planet she is cursing with her slanted commentary. What is it about the make believe childish world her cohorts mystery male voice inhabits. What are the mythologies of these fictional British voices? Who is this anachronistic radio personality speaking as if he were delivering an Anglican Church sermon circa 1955 while sounding more like a train conductor from the steamy past on Britain’s faulty rail service of today? How can you take “news” seriously from these two faceless voices oozing the sound of some “putting on airs” British fantasy of itself to market or dare I say thrust upon listeners desperately looking for the truth between the lines of the limited global news selections? These two voices seem more like manufactured props to a special program from the Ministry of Lies and Misinformation than anything from credible journalism. Are we expected to believe that these two voices even exist outside the infamous Bush House or anywhere in England for that matter? And if these voices belong to actual people then do they really talk this way in their own kitchens? Do they even eat? Why exactly have these two colonialist voices broadcast abroad not been turned out to pasture back during the years whilst Are You Being Served still ran on the television before syndication? These two voices seem to fancy themselves as rather high class sort who now that I think about it are best seen as bumbling Mr. Peacock and hot flashing Ms. Slocum. How are these two voices relevant to the audiences around the world today or even a few decades ago? Perhaps they are intended to represent something of the good old grandfather and grandmother of the colonialist masters to those of us listeners from the used up, now decayed and forgotten pieces of the old Empire. Perhaps these two voices serve to sugar coat into a forgotten saccharine history aftertaste the crimes against humanity the colonialists they represent in fact incurred and left as a hateful legacy to today’s world.

Just re-imagine if you will from the MGM movie the Wizard of Oz that strange Wizard at the end of the movie broadcasting his face and voice from behind a curtain onto a larger than life screen. Replace that bumbling Wizard with Junior Bush and his nasty administration and the microphone and video in his hand is all this worlds Broadcast media without a conscience or an ability to stand up to this sham wizard with their own bright journalists minds. Maybe like the Wizard departing OZ in an out of control Hot Air Balloon our fake Wizard Mr. Bush and co. (including their naughty rowdy daughters) will depart planet Earth lost on all the hot air of contention they have stirred up by their greed around the world.

Maybe if Elizabeth Blunt would start sounding a bit more gracious and concerned with all the little Dorothy’s (before Dorothy became the decadent drugged and suicidal alcoholic we affectionately remember singing along with her orgiastic gay fans as Judy Garland)… those good Dorothy’s not from the Midwest but from the Middle East trapped in the residual politics of the Colonialists Empire on the wane – for the young in Palestine, Iraq, all the way to Iran, Pakistan, India, Yemen and the list goes on and on. Perhaps if Elizabeth were a little less blunt to the human condition she slants in favor of a mythological world view of Britannia that went with Victoria ages ago then maybe she could redeem herself as the fairy Godmother: “…Who killed my sister the Witch of the East?” Oh where is coffee promoting Margaret Hamilton of old in this day and age of current Media tragedies?

Perhaps while talking back to the BBC like this it’s a good idea to analyze some typical BBC lingo…

“At the end of the day” – this is probably the most over used British expression used for making unlikely transitions. “At the end of the day” is an expression without meaning – at the end of the day – what? You go home from work. You are tired? You get blown up on the Tube? The sun goes down again on the Empire? At the end of the day is an expression that means nothing but tired and over used and absolutely pointless! Count how many times in one period of listening to or watching the BBC you hear it.

“The Beeb”, The affectionate nickname for the British Broadcasting Corporation probably inadvertently coined by the author E.M. Forster with his book a Room with a View for the father figure chaplain character from that novel. Mr. Bebe was his name.

“Actually”, another typically overused word in place of a basic conjunction, think of it actually as a pretentious conjunction. Pretentious is the keyword.

“I’ve never seen anything like it”. Here is a winner of a phrase to hear in a news program or any program for that matter. I mean if you want to sound as stupid as an American talking head then use this phrase as often as possible. If you really want to say it like an American try saying this phrase while eating a hot potato: "I ain't never seen anything like it before in mah life and if I did I don't know where I saw it!"

Terrorist, Terrorism, Al Qaeda, Bin Laden, Networks, Links, Insurgents, Terrorist Cells these are all words only used to instill FEAR into the listening and watching matches. These words have nothing to do with journalism neither do these words have any meaning for they are just tools of the trade in a media purveying Fear for profit.

Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Yemen, Syria, Saudi Arabia or anything Muslim and Islamic otherwise known as the ENEMIES of the Queen - if you are a British and hale from any of these countries you might as well pack your bags now as you will soon be deported after the next bout of Fear sweeps the realm. Note that news from those parts of the world are deemed unnecessary at the BBC unless it further proves their global agenda on how to think: See the Axis and Evil and its growing list of Satellites.

“Big Brother” not the cheap unreality TV shows. Not the Big Brothers watching you but you are watching Big Brother – oh brother - despite purveying the Orwellian masterpiece as “fictional literature” the Big Brother Corporation seems to follow this author’s work as a prophecy it must fulfill.

“Suicide Bomber”, another over used and misunderstood phrase in the whole of the BBC language – When you hear these two words used ask: “why is this sort of phrase never analyzed?” It’s a label word to promote misunderstanding and most importantly Fear.

“Paedophilia” (Pedophilia is an American thing but as it doesn’t sell well over there it is less common) this is another subject that the BBC is weirdly self righteously obsessed by even though it is used precisely as a titillation technique to ensure an audience doesn’t change the channel.

Iraq – generally the most important news item of the day and yet increasingly it falls to the end of the report.

“Counterpart” – when discussing the meeting of two nation’s leaders the one favored by the BBC is mentioned while the one less favored is slanted with this term.

NASA and the American Space Shuttle – this bit of manufactured news is saved for the first headline and generally spat out of the broadcast siren daily. Knowing what song NASA uses to annoy its crew out of bed is generally not headline news. Neither is this popular scientific news – sports news perhaps – like the crash and burn of a race car competition it’s the possibility of death and destruction that is used to captivate the audience. Currently NASA and the Space Shuttle Program has been Hijacked by Bush Juniors administration to further his ego as the President for Mars – perhaps that is why he needs to claim all of Iraq’s oil so he can relocate the whole of his administration there since no one really wants him on this planet. I say let the Bushlings be like the Windsors of Mars with their dynasty of inbred incompetence – better the Red planet than here on blue planet Earth!

Dangerous implications in today’s BBC news reporting methods – how many Iraqi civilians equal one American soldier? How many Palestinians equal one Israeli? How many Americans equal one Israeli? How many Muslims equal one Westerner? How many people in the third world get denied healthcare for every one person in the West who has healthcare? Why do the American’s get to vote for the one man and administration who will intimately affect the rest of the world when the rest of the world will not? Why is it most American’s can’t even be bothered to cast their one vote?

“Illegal Downloading of Music” - this subject is relentlessly harped upon by the BBC not because it is news but because the BBC is otherwise known as the Boy Band Corporation and they have huge financial profits in the music industry to protect. Never mind that the real news angle on this subject is what to do when a new technology appears out of nowhere and renders obsolete in just one day a whole industry which has persistently refused to evolve?

“Blogging” - this volatile and dangerous subject will ultimately become illegal as soon as the powers that be can figure out a way to blame Terror on it. Once an international news event creates a link between freedom of speech and the (self published) press then Blogging will become a thing of the past. The fact of the matter is the governments and corporations who control the world want to make even thinking for ones self and expressing ones thoughts illegal.

“Humor” – the BBC believes it has cornered the market on humor as the British form of the English language is the soul definition of humor. Humor’s home according to the BBC is London and humor exists nowhere else. The Belgians are not humorous according to the BBC and neither are the Australians and certainly not the Canadians. American humor falls flat on British ears as often does British humor on American ears. However, Lollywood is proving that Pakistan and in particular Lahore might be the seat of world humor and creativity with the English language. Certainly Euro News from Brussels (not Bruxelles), Belgium is running a close second to Lahore. Never mind that British humor died with the end of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the rise Thatcher and all those espresso and cappuccino electronic gadgetries we now have to prepare coffee while a dependable cup of tea went to the bag in a forgotten mug of brackish tap water. Go figure why Euro News which is an English language alternative to the Beeb for the Continental Masses is obsessed by using only the French language spelling for Brussels. The strange thing is though the whole of the Euro News channel is in the English language every mention of Brussels, Belgium in textual form is with the French spelling Bruxelles. This is an overt Franco-centric calling card that completely disregards history and the Flemish minority remaining in their city which is spelled Brussel (without the‘s’ at the end) to perpetuate the myth that Bronte’s la Villette is a monolingual French speaking city and not a multi-lingual capital city – Capital of the Dutch speaking (Flemish) part of Belgium in the remnants of Flanders/(Vlaanderen) - Brussels also the Capital city for the European Union. Get used to it Bru-town is a complicated place whether you spell it Brussel, Bruxelles, Brussels, Bruselas, and even then it is in Belgie, Belgique, Belgien, Belgium, Belgica etc. So goes Brussels and Belgium so goes the Union of Europeans. Meanwhile Angleterre hovers around Europe on that damp little island trying to make up its mind if it wants to be part of the American Union or the Union of Europeans and sitting on its fence (or in this case chunnel) of indecision while condescendingly telling the Europeans how to run things it can’t even commit to.

“Masked Gunmen” – in Beeb lingo this means those dark looking Arab Muslims who wants to kill and terrorise you into submission… This in no way implies that a masked gunman could be brought to you by some special branch of espionage by way of your government the CIA/Zionists who propagate their political aims on a certain regional political issue. Whenever you see a masked gunman then you must assume that there is a fifty percent possibility this is an Israeli or a nice waspy Midwestern boy under that mask conveniently masquerading as an Arab. Whenever you see hostages being held in a near death situation on video with masked gunman behind them always think CIA first. Where do they get all these video tapes anyway? It might not be true but unless you want to be part of a medieval witch hunt mentality society then you must not loose the ability to reason even if an image is frightening. I mean for Chrissakes Halloween isn’t illegal yet.

Beards – in BBC television imagery if someone has a beard then most certainly they are linked to terrorist activities. They are not good Orthodox Christians or Jews nor are they any longer part of the now nostalgic Hippie movement… They do not pray five times a day, neither do they read the Qur’an throughout the day and neither do they have a large family to provide for. They most undoubtedly spend their days putting together bombs and going to international meetings probably held in Texas to plan the next media target on the menu du jour. If you are in security services then anyone with a beard is a suspect.

Fear of an Islamic Planet – though this idea is never vocalized or even made mention of – this is the real fear behind the fear of terrorism. It isn’t that there might be a bomb in that bag next to you on the train or in the lobby of the bank you go to or in the clutch purse of some fab chick at a disco – there is no fear in the masses about these things because there are places everywhere for this sort of explosive. We just all hope it isn’t us and that it happens somewhere else to someone else even if it is in our home town after all it is something new to watch on TV and talk about for weeks on end. The real fear motivating us to relinquish our rights to the war on Terror is that in the back of our minds even though we don’t realize it we fear the possibility that in the future our planet might be completely Islamic and then what? We don’t know so we are afraid – and this is the fear that is capitalized on for changing our world in the west into Orwell’s warning with his book 1984.

Perhaps it is time to rethink our strategy in the west on that abstract concept we loosely refer to as Terrorism or as those warmongering Americans call it the War on Terror. Nowadays anyone can just about take a plane somewhere yet few of us flyers really face terror when boarding a plane. Statistically flying is much safer than driving but if you are one of the unlucky ones trapped on an ill fated flight and plummet in a burning fireball to death – well we don’t make planes illegal because certain wealthier people profit off of air travel which is after all essentially statically the safest mode of transportation. Around the planet everyday the same amount of people who died in New York City on the morning of September 11, 2001 die in traffic related accidents and yet we do not make the automobile illegal even though the automobile has single handedly unmade Western civilization in less than ten decades. Again there are almighty profits to be made by the wealthy few henchmen holding this planet hostage. Perhaps we need to realize that anger and crude technologies used to kill senselessly are the result not of Islam or the Muslims but perhaps a human side effect to the combination of new technologies and the relentless march of capitalism. I’m sorry but if Timothy McVey took down the Demurer building today in Oklahoma City would he be an unwitting member of the Al Qaeda Network? Is the Al Qaeda Network by definition a psychic network perhaps oblivious to each other on the planet? Perhaps we need to stop writing off as "terrorism" the tragic events of some deranged people who like to hurt and kill the innocent people who make up the masses who get caught in cruel traps of violence. It is time to stop using the tactics of killers to conveniently justify removing social issues like Liberty and Freedom which are not convenient to the Corporatist agenda for controlling society.

Maybe we have to start thinking with the communal power of the collective Mass again. There are six billion of us on planet earth – minus a few Corporate henchmen and their families – minus a few deranged unrelated by differing twisted ideological social psychopaths who can’t reach the untouchable Corporate henchmen they are angry at – I mean maybe we should look at this like flying a plane. I know when I get on a plane I might not get off alive but I do it anyways. Just like if I go out on the street I might not come home alive – just like sex has always been something that can kill you – I may even die in my own home by some unfortunate chain of events. I drive and yet I know especially in Belgium cars are lethal! Statistically though I am less likely to get trapped in a terrorist death plot somewhere on the planet and nowhere is immune than I am statistically likely to die on a airplane (or for that matter from an airplane falling out of the sky on to my home). So, let us the people think as our planet’s majority of billions of good people and get smart about what is going on. The hateful people need the corporate henchman (the untouchable oligarchs around the world) just as much as the Oligarchs need the unconnected deranged killers who are invisible in the masses. These two have a game going on that you just don’t want to be caught in the middle of. These deeds the media calls Terrorism are done to get the attention of the untouchable Oligarchs who could give a fuck and won’t listen unless there is some money to me made off of this new dynamic. Or in today’s world if the Oligarchs can use the disgruntled to unmake Governmental protections that stand in their way of getting even more power over the Masses. So if we are going to go to war on terror then let’s be sure we understand these complexities! The Oligarchs and the bomb throwers and hostage takers are one and the same – they are at the moment fighting each other while taking it out on us the members of the mass majority of peaceful good people on the planet.

Question: What is the bigger crime in American History – Hijackers flying planes into the World Trade Center or Bush stealing the election in Florida in 2000 – which event led to more American deaths and casualties at home or abroad?

There was a time when I remember growing up that I was geeky enough to actually want to write the BBC a letter to tell them about how their World Service Radio saved my life and my mind’s ability to reason with their extraordinary global views. Indeed the course of my life changed by way of my making the effort to listen to and be entertained by what little of the BBC made its way to the wasteland of central Ohio. Now my life has gone beyond the confines of the Midwest of both the states and middle earth England. Certainly the BBC more than the Ohio State University taught me to be critical of the world around me. I believe it is my right and obligation to criticize the structures of the world we live in. If we live in a free society then this critical analysis will only serve to strengthen the foundations of human life worth believing in. Critical analysis does not tear down an already weak structure – perhaps it bolsters or corrects it. The difficult effort to think critically is an obligation and a duty as well as an integral attribute to a sophisticated civilization. George Walker Bush and his inhuman administration and his counterpart Tony Blair and co have been seduced by their own popularity into believing they know what is best when in fact these are the two most dangerous men alive at this point in history – dangerous for our society and dangerous for decent people the world over. We the people of this planet’s masses must not stop utilizing the idealistic tools (freedom of thought, speech and press) of our various worlds to drive these men and women from their insulated privileged positions of ignorance and power. More than Iran utilizing nuclear power these two administrations are a threat that must be brought back down to face the judgment of the people and not the corporatist aims of a wealthy few.

 

Manipulation for the Masses

Posted by Matthew Crouch at 12:03

It seems I listen to a lot of the BBC World Service Radio perhaps too much but I have noticed a big shift in the mentality of its reports and analysis for the worse. Lately there has not been much by way of reports and certainly no analysis – it has been all “power of suggestion” used to tell the masses what to think… it’s getting infected by the unstoppable CNN effect. Mass manipulation as it were or shall we say Manipulation for the Masses? Not so long ago there was a big shake up at the BBC offices and one man was sacked while others were reported to have protested, I suppose this current ambiance of stupidity is the result of that loss. There was a time back when I was stuck in Ohio as a kid during the Thatcher years when I would stay up late just to listen to the BBC World Report on NPR (National Public Radio) local radio broadcast after midnight so no one in America’s interior would know what was really happening in the rest of the world. It was such a shock in those days to listen to the voice of Britain to hear about the rest of the world in unheard of terms. Back then none of the American news services would report or analyze like that. Well there won’t be any young coming of age and awareness to the rest of the world from Middle American with the help of the BBC’s World Service radio now for that can’t happen with the new CNN version of the BBC. Another success of the Bush I, Bush II (administration et al), Blair, Berlusconi, Murdock regime the planet is held under.

One such BBC example was yesterday in yet another tired report about the London bomb the only news about that was how exhausted and over worked and trying the hardest they can those good old London police are (sorry for the Yoda talk but I just saw Star Wars III). Excuse me but when did anyone ever have sympathy for a police officer? Talk about Power of Suggestion as a tactic for manipulating the masses. Tell the commuters not to mind one more infringement on their precious liberty because of terrorists. Don’t mind that there aren’t enough trains, tracks, to say nothing of seats or effective timetables in this day and age of the automobile! Just feel sorry for that over worked heroic policeman searching your bag. There are so many bags to search you know. Whatever happened to the days when on BBC TV (which has always been a bit more sensational than the stark Radio World Report) when on the YOUNG ONES the five star (on his forehead no less) punkish Adrian Edmonson character Vyvyan was like in every breath making fun of British Police and their ineptitude. Perhaps the London tube bombing was just more evidence of commuter frustration as Britain has never been able to, since Thatcher, get any of their trains to run on time or in any proper order. Privatization has its consequences. It's just much easier to Wag the Dog (re-watch the movie on DVD!) with reports about the CIA invention called “Al Qaeda” – it is pure mythology. I for one think there is no such thing as Al Qaeda “Networks”, “Links” or “Strongholds” or for that matter “Insurgencies in Iraq”. My lawd if the Americans were for corporatist energy reasons occupying Britain the BBC World Service Radio would not be referring to angry crowds of rock throwing Britishers as Insurgents. It is a bit rich when the nation that once carved up the part of the world it now demonizes as the Middle East with its own broadcasting corporation instead of trying to heal the region today.

When will a media report ever report on what it must be like to be on the other end of the occupation of Iraq? I mean “we are not all stupid people” (to quote Edina from Absolutely Fabulous regarding her humorous idea of a “stupidity tax”) and the BBC’s World Service was the last refuge in the Anglophone media for anyone who was slightly capable of thinking for themselves. As Eds said when she was in court ranting ““I know you know” - it is no accident that education in the Anglophone world has nose dived considerably since the Viet Nam war years for even that was certainly a planned tactical maneuver for manipulating the masses. First get the masses dumbed down then you can tell them what to think and believe. (Plus taxes really are in this day and age only for the stupid masses). It just takes patience and time. Look at this history of the careers of the henchmen now working for the father and son tag team of the Bush I and II administrations and see how far back they have had their fingers in the pot of the American government – these are the henchmen (including those patsy’s the high colonic Powell and that nasty bleeding rectal condyloma Rice – woo hoo freedom of speech – use it or loose it - was never so thrilling than to write like this!) who made this new world order of Ignorance. Don’t even get me started on Humpsvelds rump! These are the criminal horsemen of the apocalypse of ignorance and Blair is that whining accomplice of that George Michael poodle scratching at the door to be let out or worse caught on your pants leg hopping up and down... Just like Thatcher returned Britain back to the real Victorian Values of poor to non existent Health care, back to “work houses” now serving up greasy fast food for the poor, back to only education for an elite, while single-handedly undoing the Victorian made idea of transportation so has the Administration of America by the Bush family and their corporatitst henchman brought about a North American Dark Age that will take generations to recover from even if education was restored with the next left leaning enlightened administration.

What if history was a lie brought to you by the successful men of Capitalism? Perhaps everything is, as Moby’s unforgettable CD was titled, wrong? What if Bin Laden and his magnificent beard were a creation brought to you by the special branch wing of the CIA? What if Saddam Hussein was a Reagan invention? What if Iraq had not one drop of oil? Why is George Bush senior so closely linked to the CIA? How is it that the puppet of a president George Bush junior has a grandfather so closely linked to corporate investments with Nazi Germany? How is it that the First Lady of America killed someone while driving an automobile and has (passively) earned the titled First “Lady”? Why do the American’s want a family such as this running a land with such pervasive control around the world? What kind of world has been made for the masses and why? Why are the few people with such control on planet earth so afraid when we the masses are not? But the real question is why there is no one protesting to say nothing of mass protest? Speaking of Hitler there was a time when that Mr. Hitler spoke of the Queen of England being the most dangerous woman in Europe. It seems almost quaint now that tidbit of Euro-gossip from history. Applied to today’s reality of the multi-national corporate version of the Ministry of lies and Propagation to manipulate the masses perhaps the BBC is the new most dangerous entity and electronic Queen Bee in today’s Europe. This is all the new Music for the Masses otherwise known as manufacturing fear and totally unlike anything produced by that de groovy electronic band called Depeche Mode.

For all of this good for me cathartic ranting I do know that whenever I travel and I must use the services of my American Embassy – every visit reminds me that as an American citizen I am a nobody because I am not representing a corporations financial interests when I arrive at my country’s doorstep abroad in need of a basic tax payers service. I do know that whenever I cross borders into the Anglophone world that the passage is being squeezed tighter and more uncomfortable not because of any real threat of terrorists abroad but because of lies and misinformation brought about by that Siren of a propagandists mouthpiece known as broadcast media. Perhaps selfish political aims at controlling the masses are creating sinister figures like Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda Network to blame new technological inconveniences which will be applied to the very people who make up the masses. Perhaps it is this very incessant telling of lies to the listening and watching public disguised as news that is creating tomorrow’s ghosts and demons. Rest assured those very merchants of fear are already manufacturing what we the masses will need to buy to protect ourselves from the very consequences of the very fear they sold us in the first place. These henchmen of the apocalypse and their families have secured their dynastic place of comfort and luxury in history while resting on the backs of people like you and me who make up the small inconsequential pieces of what they refer to without a thought or care as the masses.